Sweltering in the Swamp

Rob Howard / 04.12.2013

There was a lot of talk about the climb of Chirripo and the Indian trail pre-race, and teams were focused on getting there for what most assumed would be the key stage of the race – maybe they should have talked more about the paddle stage through the mangrove swamp!

With a combination of extreme endurance, roasting temperatures, difficult navigation, a lack of drinking water and strong tides it was always likely to be the first stage in the race that might make or break teams, and so its proving.

Even before they began teams were sore from the first long paddle, and wearied by the long cross country road trek to TA3 carrying all their paddling gear. Then they had the 10km portage through the night – and all before the toughest paddling stage of the race, maybe the toughest in recent AR history.

They faced a long paddle up into the mangrove channels and somehow Thule Adventure got the jump on the leading pack and pulled out a lead, which they managed to keep through the finish of the stage. We caught up with them on the water just after they passed CP19 and they were moving steadily but slowly, pushing against the tide. They said they’d not slept, maybe 10 minutes was Albert Roca’s guess, but Miriam Guillot added, “I think it was maybe 45 minutes for me – I had some sleep in the back of the kayak, I was a lazy girl and not so efficient on this stage!”

There was little incentive to stop even with the tides against as there were few places it was possible. The channels were lined by a dense wall of mangrove roots above thick, foul smelling mud, and there were occasional glimpses of crocodiles on the mud banks – so not the best of places to rest. We saw one small croc dive under the Thule boats, but they didn’t even notice it.

There was no shade either, the channels were wider then you might expect (from looking at the maps), and the day was the hottest so far, topping out around 35C.  Drinking water was an issue for the teams, and will be even more so for those who are slower. Thule took over 20 hours on the stage, when the fastest predicted time was 15.  They did seem to have plenty of water in their bladders towards the end of the paddle so had managed well, but teams will have to be sure to take enough with them.

As Thule approached the town of Sierpe, where TA4 is positioned at a small lodge up a side creek, they stopped to study the maps, then headed across the channel to the far shore. They had spotted a road that ran to the TA and had decided to use their portage trolleys and finish the stage on the road rather than continue against the tide.

It was impressive that they were alert to the option, but it did take them longer than anticipated as one of the trolleys broke. They arrived at the transition with all their gear in one boat, and the other deflated and being carried Jacky Boisset. (They probably swapped it around as they are really heavy to carry on your own.)  Mimi Guillot said, “The trolley broke, they are not meant for adventure racers, they are for .... ordinary people!”

She dived straight into the water on arrival and so did Stuart Lynch, who looked to be suffering the most from the heat. At least on the water there was a breeze, but the heat reflected off the road must have been intense.

Despite their ordeal they were efficient in transition, where a large crowd was watching, including all the media and a few teams who have pulled out. One of these was La Ruta Landrover, who had stopped to sleep on the first paddle and failed to tie one of the boats properly – and it floated off! The other teams pulled out so far are Tropico Extremo and Rios y Canaos Colombia, and they too were at the transition and are all O.K.

Behind Thule Adventure there was a close and tactical race going on in the swamp with several teams quite close together. We saw Seagate and Silva Haglofs only a few metres apart and Seagate were heavily plastered with mud. Chris Forne shouted out, “We got stuck in the mud!”  It looked like they had tried to take the direct route from CP 16 to 17, and found they couldn’t make it, and others may try this too.

At the time Columbia Vidaraid were close by and headed to CP16, which was just an orienteering flag hung on the mangroves. (Some of the flags were quite high and looked hard to reach – perhaps they were put out at high tide!)

Seagate were second into transition nearly 2 hours behind Thule and its likely only the leading teams will finish the paddle stage in daylight, leaving most of the race field out in the swamp overnight.  They will need to take care as some of the channels have a lot of debris floating in them and there are mud banks that will be hard to see.

Meanwhile the leaders are headed for the Superman zip line which will be quite an experience in the dark!

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